10:10 AM EDT
Welcome to my NCAA Tournament Day 1 Live blog.  Today is, by far my favorite day of the sporting calendar.  No day combines the sheer amount of action with the dazzling array of story lines and opportunities for history to be written.  My day, with the exception of Scrabble Club tonight, is dedicated to college basketball.

College basketball has been my favorite sport since high school, at least.  Perhaps it was a way of overcompensating for my inability to play the game.  Later, as a college student, and an employee of a D1 Athletic Department, I really came to understand just how great an institution college basketball, and especially the NCAA tournament, really is. 

For so many of the schools involved, making the tournament is, in and of itself, an affirmation of their effort and hard work.  The reward for a season of long bus rides and guarantee games is one chance to stand on the same court with a national power, and hope their slingshot has enough magic in it to take down a Goliath.  And we watch, because every once in a while, it does. I am, and will always be, a Pitt fan... but a part of me, even today, is rooting for Oral Roberts.

My games to watch today: 
Pitt-ORU- The first step for the Panthers, but unlike previous first round matchups for the Panthers, ORU has tournament experience, and will not be intimidated.
BYU-Texas A&M- Why? 1. I'm Mormon.  Go Cougars.  2. An interesting matchup, between a strong non-major that doesn't get the respect it deserves, and a major that's really not as good as the record suggests. 
Xavier-Georgia- Can Xavier recover from a disappointing A10 Tourney exit?  Can Georgia continue their miracle run?  On pure talent, Xavier should run away with this... but it's March, it's tourney time, and sometimes, you can't help but root for Cinderella.

And of Course, My  Bracket Picks:






*Style note:  There is a pestilence on the college basketball landscape.  It is at a school in Durham, North Carolina, and I refuse to refer to it by its name (scrabblers:  this is analogous to my use of J.W. Smith).  It will go by the name Evil in all live-blogging efforts.  Today, I am the biggest Belmont Bruin fan around.

So my final four is UNC, KU, Pitt, and UCLA.  KU and UCLA play for the title, and UCLA cuts down the nets on April 7th.

Any comments ideas or thoughts are welcome.  See ya at Noon.

Note:  Updates will take place in text.  I'll start a new entry for each new session of games.

11:56 AM
The first three games....  actually, two games that have the potential to be interesting (Xavier-Georgia, Michigan St.- Temple) and one rout (Kansas-Portland State).  I'm curious to find out which game gets put on the air here in suburban Cleveland... I'd think Xavier-Georgia, but neither of the others is out of the realm of possibility.  Thank heavens for March Madness On Demand. 

UPDATE 12:07 PM: Here in the Cleveland Media Market, we get Michigan State- Temple.  I guess Big 10 loyalty trumps the in state team.  Not that people up here think of Cincinnati as being in the same state as them, but still...

Twenty minutes til tipoff of Xavier-Georgia. 
Mascotology
Gotta think a guy with a Musket could easily off a Bulldog, but if the musketeer were distracted, and the Bulldog were a pitbull, I suppose it could pull off the upset.

UPDATE 12:20:  And it begins: Tipoff of the 3-14 Xavier-Georgia matchup.  The 3 seed for Xavier says a lot about what a renaissance year this was for the A10.  The A10 for a couple years has looked as if it were going to fall down to the level of C-USA and be primarily a one-bid conference year in, year out.  This year, with Xavier, Temple (auto bid) and St. Joe's in, and Dayton and UMass in the discussion until very late, this is a year for the conference to build on.  A Xavier run would help clinch this...
Can't help but be a bit of a Xavier fan... Sean Miller, former Pitt guard, is the coach... Miller was one of those guys who seemed to stay in school forever... I swear he played for 11 years.

UPDATE 12:25: Xavier up 5-2, clearly the more talented team... and Georgia has already resorted to playing Dave Bliss, Jr, whose dad is best know for helping to engineer the downfall of Baylor Basketball, as head coach at the time of the Patrick Dennehy murder.

UPDATE: 12:30 PM- switch to the MSU-Temple Game... most significantly, Gus Johnson is announcing (with Len Elmore).  cool.

UPDATE 12:33 PM- Safely into MSU Temple.  I miss the John Chaney matchup zone,  I know ran Dumphy knows what he's doing, and it's certainly making Michigan St. look sloppy on offense... but the Temple Matchup Zone was iconic, and always made Temple play above talent level and above seed in March.

UPDATE 12:40 PM- Thanks for coming, Portland St.  KU up 12-3 early, and they've missed some easy baskets or it would be worse.  One sixteen down.  UGA up by three, as if to embarrass me for the 12:25 Update.

UPDATE 12:45 PM- Drew Lavender, 5'7", just had an alleyoop lob thrown for him.  I am speechless. He remains really short.

Update 12:52 PM- Give Portland St. their props... not only would a Viking do serious damage to a Jayhawk... they're hanging in.  Unfortunately, KU is shooting well from the outside, which you can't stop when trying to keep from giving up easy inside baskets.  Meanwhile Georgia missed the memo that they aren't very good.  Way to save Dennis Felton from the unemployment line, guys.

Update 1:00 PM- If Brandon Rush can hit 3's like this, I like my pick of them getting to the championship game.  Georgia-Xavier screams that it'll go down to the last second.  And then, Xavier's superior guards vs. Georgia's superior Karma... who knows.  I love this game so far tho.  and since KU has snapped Portland St.'s little neck, I can focus my In Demand watching on UGA-XU.  Note: Michigan State looks better than expected.  Drew Neitzel is good, I guess.

Update 1:05 PM- Drew Neitzel is competing with Kirk Heinrich, and Joe Smith for the Basketball Player name that sounds the least like a Basketball Player Name Award.  (Lifetime achievement award for the opposite award: God Shamgod, Providence) And of course, in Mascotology, A Spartan would catch, cook, and eat an Owl's nocturnal little ass.  XU best wake up, or they could get run outta the gym.

UPDATE 1:15 PM- Halftime of XU-UGA and KU-PSU.  UGA's late run has me concerned.  They kinda remind me of the Missouri team from a few years back that made a miracle run in the big XII tourney to make the field as a 12 seed, and then made the Sweet 16.  Xavier is good enough to come back tho... 9 points is not insurmountable.  Temple needed halftime to come about 6 minutes ago.

UPDATE 1:25 PM- the 16 is dead, and the 12 and the 3 are underperfoming.  I way have been a bit quick to praise the Atlantic 10.  Can I change my St. Joe's pick?  In all seriousness, Xavier is anything but dead.  Xavier needs to take advantage of its advantage in the backcourt, and maybe, just maybe, find a way to not get dominated on the boards.  I think Temple needs a great start to the 2nd half for even a chance to get back in it.

UPDATE 1:35 PM- XU-UGA and KU-Portland St. are back on the court.  Georgia has got off to a very sloppy start, and Drew Lavender remains really short.  Portland State has a Washington Generals look to them. 

UPDATE 1:37 PM- Whatever I write about UGA-XU, just assume the opposite will happen in the next few minutes.  The amount of NBA-level talent on the Kansas team may be unmatched in this tournament; when they're hitting shots (and when their coach doesn't get outcoached) they may be the best team in the country.

UPDATE 1:40 PM- There is a white guy on the floor for Temple.  In the John Chaney days, that would NEVER have happened.  occasionally he'd have a white walk-on at the end of the bench, but in years of seeing Temple hoops, I don't remember him ever playing a white guy.    At this point, I think Temple needs Bird, Bill Walton and John Stockton to keep it competitve.  They've just done the game switch; they've moved us to XU-UGA.  Unfortunately, they don't send us Gus Johnson too.

UPDATE 1:55 PM- There's some unexpected guests here, so I'm calling this session over, from a liveblog perspective.  I'll answer any comments after they leave, and I'll start on the second session in my next entry.
Fun So far... I love this game.

3:21 PM- Disaster averted for the Xmen, as they have a great second half to put away pesky Georgia.  My Perfect Bracket dream dies hard as Michigan State embarrasses Temple.    The 3:00 games look great so far,  except of course for the one I have on TV, Kent State and UNLV.  Kent State is about 45 minutes away from me, so as much as I have a rooting interest, it's there.  In Mascotology, A have to give the Golden Flashes an edge over the Runnin' Rebels, as the Flashes lack an apostrophe (or physical mass) to weigh them down in a race.  I don't care how fast the Rebels run, they're slower than the speed of light.

Pitt ORU looks like a game, which is good and bad.  It would officially destroy my bracket, and knock out my fave team, if ORU wins, but I love the dogs.  Marquette Kansas should be a fun game... and Baylor Purdue has  no real story behind it whatsoever, altho the idea of Purdue doing well upsets me, as they aren't a good team. 

Well, Hopefully Pitt will start to play basketball.  Did I mention that Jared Fogle sucks?  Really, I'm sick of the ten years of Jared Commercial.  Maybe if I could afford to spend twenty dollars a day to eat subway all the time, I'd be 180 lbs too... but we don't all have a spokesperson deal.  Douche.  Reminds me of the Jared Has Aides episode of South Park... speaking of which, South Park Studios has every episode available online... southparkstudios.com 

This will continue through the afternoon games... I'll miss out on the one 4:45 game (although I have to do that Mascotology, because it's the toughest in the tournament), and scrabble club will take me away until the last batch of games... look for your updates till then here.

UPDATE 3:35- Pitt has Woken up, and put the clamps down defensively on ORU... Gotta love 18-0 runs.  If Oral Roberts doesn't break 20 in the first half, God will call him home.   Meanwhile, no one informed Kent State that they have a game today, and some random cats are on the court in dark unis acting like cones to run layup drills around.  Halftime has mercifully arrived.  Meanwhile, as soon as I trash Purdue, they go on a run, and Baylor looks like they're in real trouble.  Kentucky-Marquette is at the half, and looks like the game to watch.

UPDATE 3:44 The Marquette- Kentucky game is being announced by a guy named Carter Blackburn.  Should he find a yachting regatta to provide commentary for? I mean, he'd be less WASPy if he had a restrictive covenant in the deed to his house.  Mascotology: Wildcats vs. Warriors... Gotta go Wildcats-  that Tiger in San Diego really f'ed that kid up... and the Ultimate Warrior hasn't been a factor in the WWE since it was the WWF.  Easy call.

UPDATE 4:00 PM: They need to switch from the Kent State game.  It's embarrassing, really.  It's setting the MAC back a generation.   UNLV has looked surprisingly good, and  Kansas may be in for a more difficult round 2 game than expected.  Marquette may be starting to put the heel down on Kentucky's neck.  Mascotology: Panthers vs. Golden Eagles.  I think this one would be close, except that after gilding the Eagle, it loses mobility, although the gold coating does give the Panther a tummyache.

UPDATE: 4:10 PM:  UNLV continues to sweep the leg... at this point, a trip to Kent, Ohio is actually looking good to the team, which, if you've ever been to Kent, is something. A kent State Player just got kneed in the head while dunking, so I'm intrigued again.  Pitt deserves some more love here.  They are playing with such toughness and intensity that I think it takes a special team to beat them... there's a whole lot of more talented teams, but they lack the toughness to deal with a team like Pitt.  Mascotology: Bears vs. Boilermakers:  I don't like the odds of a skilled tradesman, not trained in the ways of bearhunting, taking on our ursine friends.  I think that the Boilermaker would be mauled and slashed into pieces...  tough day to be a human so far...

UPDATE 4:20 PM: Wow, these games certainly lack a certain excitement right now...  Even Marquette appears to be coasting.  How long until they're trying to run Billy Gillespie out of Lexington?  Mascotology (4:45 edition): Big Red vs. Cardinal.  If Cardinal were the bird, it would be the victor, easily... unfortunately, Cardinal refers to the color, a shade of red.  Against the Big Red, which is clearly a bigger shade of red.  In a battle like this, size is a critical factor when matching up two otherwise equivalent competitors.  Advantage Big Red (I shoulda done these before I filled out my bracket).

UPDATE 4:30-  They refuse to switch away from Kent State (woohoo finally did!).  I just watched a 5 minute delay as the referee's tried to figure out if they could retroactively award free throws they forgot to award.  In a 20 point game. And Kentucky will not die, as they hit a clutch 3 to pull within 5.

UPDATE 4:35- They just switched us back!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHH*.   UNLV is wiping the floor with Kent, we get the point... we saw them deliver the coup de grace, do we need to see the burial in an unmarked grave?  And once the Marquette game is done, I may just call it a session, as the other games are frightful.  Baylor is playing like an NIT team, which a good argument could be made that they should have been (yet I picked them for the sweet 16... moron).

UPDATE 4:40- And people are saying Dominique James can play at the next level?  He couldn't defend me, I don't think.  Every time I look, his jockstrap is in the second row.  As a Big East honk, I've always felt he was more hype than game.  Kinda like Tom Crean, while we're at it...

UPDATE 4:43- They's sent us back yet again... although this time, there's no good option.  Marquette held on.  Kent just missed an easy uncontested dunk.  Hope they enjoy the gift package on the flight back.  Otherwise, I think I'm done for now.... I'll be back after Scrabble tonight.  Don't be surprised if Cornell gives Stanford a day, although at the end of the day, the greater intellect of Stanford will carry the day (no backdoor into the School of Agriculture at Stanford).

10:12 PM Sorry for my prolonged absence... scrabble, and then the boss calls, ass me to met him at BW3.  I walk in the door just in time to see Gerald Henderson throw a flying karate kick at a Belmont Bruin with position while making a layup.  If the jerseys had been reversed, Belmont would have been charged with at least the offensive foul, and probably a T for making Coach D cry.  The sickening double standard Evil gets from his working the officials is disgusting.  There is no justice in basketball.  Kinda like scrabble, without five vowel eights.  And Evil is Patrick Hodges.

Chase Budinger just passed up an easy layup to throw a pass to Bob Huggins.  Maybe a bit to unselfish, surfer boy.

George Mason's glass slipper must have gotten broken on the way to the ball, Notre Dame is beating them like red-headed stepchildren.  Luke Harangody remains unbelievably ugly.  He has a career as an extra-large troll waiting for him if hoops don't work out.

Wisconsin 17, CSFullerton 16 with 10:30 left in the first half.  A higher scoring pace than the Badgers want, I'm pretty sure.  That could be a sign of some drama to come.  Or it could be nothing.

UPDATE 10:20 PM: Arizona is such a poorly coached mess without Lute Olson.  I swear Kevin O'Neill has the world's largest collection of embarrassing photos of people who hire basketball coaches.  He's never been better than below average as a coach, and quite often horrid.  Yet here he is again, underachieving as usual.  UCLA is the only Pac 10 team with more talent than Arizona, and yet they were a win or two away fro being in the NIT.  I want his agent.


UPDATE 10:25 PM: It's uncanny... Wisconsin is on a run. Bye Bye Fullerton.  The Badgers aren't a team to fall behind.  The Delta Devils of Mississippi Valley State are predictably being swamped.  One can't help but feel bad for the historically black colleges and universities.  The MEAC and SWAC are so weak, and their teams get destroyed.  The only reason both HBCU Conference Champs don't make the play in game most years is that the Committee refuses to put both of them in there.  It's kinda sad.  I remember Jackson State with Lindsay Hunter being a tough tough out... those days are gone..

UPDATE 10:33 PM: Well, shut me up again... Fullerton is within 2... Mason is barely hanging within range, down 12 at the half.  West Virginia's tall skinny balding white guy amuses me for some reason... I think his effectiveness comes from his ability to remind his opponent's of their own mortality.  He really should consider a hairpiece or something...

UPDATE 10:45 PM:  I think this is the last bit for the night.  Miss Valley State just broke into double digits to cut UCLA's lead to 25 late in the first half.  Go CSFullerton (Some double digit seed has to win, might as well make it good.)  Dick Enberg has returned from the dead, having told Carter Blackburn that his ascot is askew and to get off his lawn.  Everyone once in a while anymore, Enberg has a senior moment... they're usually quite fun... Bilas is the perfect guy to cover them up tho... Mason needs as run early in the second half, and quickly forces a turnover, only to fail to capitalize.  Next possession, a wicked block by ND.  Notre Dame has a certain wicked stepmother quality to it.    Thanks everyone, day 1 was fun... see ya tomorrow.

Pete